Muse Biography

Muse are an English trio hailing from the sleepy town of Teignmouth in Devon. The band consists of Matthew Bellamy (lead vocalist, lead guitarist, and pianist), Chris Wolstenholme (bass guitarist) and Dominic Howard (drummer).

Meet a band inspired by the two best bands of the last decade (Nirvana and Radiohead). A band - average age 20 - with eighty songs and four record deals around the world. A band who've spent the 90's cut off and disenfranchised. A band who won't be happy until they've ripped the heart from your chest and shattered your eardrums. Meet MUSE. From England. But not so you'd notice.

The rock trio consists of guitarist/vocalist Matthew Bellamy, bassist Chris Wolstenhome and drummer Dominic Howard. The group's emotive sound and live dates drew critical acclaim and industry buzz, and after a trip to New York's CMJ festival, Muse signed a deal with Maverick Records. Their debut full-length album Showbiz was released toward the end of 1999. Two years later, Muse issued The Origin of Symmetry and had a major hit with Hyper Music. In 2002, fans were treated to the double-disc live set Hullabaloo. Their latest album Absolution is clearly the product of three mid twenties musicians at the height of their powers, determined to push their aesthetic all the way.

“Matt Bellamy has put together a collection of simple, poetic, transparent songs that re-engage with the old words and values; honour, courage and righteousness. It’s one long love letter to the Impossible Dream, and it WILL NOT SURRENDER. There’s been no record released yet this century with stakes so high. Musically, it could have been a disaster. But one man’s prog is another man’s progress, and every guitar here sounds like it’s from the future, every flourish and movement scored and orchestrated with the celestial vision. By indulging every pomp rock wet dream he’s ever had, Matt’s found that there’s no such thing as too much distortion, and that, when you care this much, chartbusting tunes really do fall from the sky…..On earth, Muse have made the UK Rock record of the year, but as it is in heaven, they’ve created a scripture; the defining document of a new religion no more complicated than Bellamy’s crystal clear lyrics.” (NME)

Bringing this holy vision onto the stage is second nature to these world-travellers. Live, Muse manage to seduce the unconverted, and reaffirm the fanatical devotion of their fans . “As balmy late evening sunshine gives way to darkness and cascades of rain, so Ash's breezy pop punk gives way to the tempestuous drama of Muse. It's the perfect setting for the Devon trio's heartstoppingly intense show. With Matt Bellamy plucking sounds from the air like a mad professor, Muse are truly incredible tonight, switching mood and pace to outragous effect. The rapturous applause that greets the killer conclusion of 'Muscle Museum' and 'Plug in Baby' is a heartening reminder that sometimes, just sometimes, originality and fearless, peerles ambition gets its just rewards.” (Kerrang! review, Leeds Festival)

It’s hard to imagine a more rapturous critical reception than the one poured out for the U.K. trio Muse on the release of their third album, and Warner Bros. debut, Absolution. A representative sampling tells the tale: “Earth-shattering and life-saving,” declared NME, while Rock Sound joined the chorus with “A sure-fire ticket to world domination,” and Bang boasted ,“A hyperspace jump into the future.” While Time Out trumpeted, “Sheer, blistering rock splendor,” the Daily Mirror declared, “Dazzling,” and the Guardian gushed, “Utterly beguiling.”

Rock Sound’s quote turned out to be positively prophetic, with Absolution topping charts in the U.K. and France, climbing into the top five in 12 countries (including the Netherlands, Ireland, Japan, Switzerland, Italy, Norway, and Belgium), the top 10 in 15 countries. and the top 20 in 20 countries--all within weeks of its release. Currently all of Muse’s albums are platinum in the U.K., and predominantly gold in the major European territories.

So, with all those words and numbers you might well be asking where Muse has been all your life. The answer, if you’ve been paying attention, has been there the whole time, or at least back to 1999, when the trio released their debut American album, Showbiz. What’s happened since conclusively proves that timing is everything, and while Muse has yet to generate the sort of manic sensation Stateside that greeted them internationally, the time is now totally ripe for their triumphant return with Absolution.

Consider this: With a recent nomination for Best Rock Group at the prestigious Brits (the U.K. version of the Grammys) and a sold-out international arena tour that has taken them through Europe, Australia, and Japan, Muse arrives in America with an album where “every track is built on a gigantic scale” (The Times), and a front-and-center slot at the year’s premier music event, the Coachella Music & Arts Festival.

Not that Muse is out to prove anything. They are, simply and sincerely, in it for the music, and always have been. Hailing from the hamlet of Teignmouth in the picturesque Devon countryside, Matt Bellamy (lead vocals, guitar, and keyboards), Dominic Howard (drums and percussion), and Chris Wolstenholme (bass and backing vocals) had known each other since childhood before joining forces as Muse in 1994, performing their first gig at a local battle of the bands after being together one week.

Six years later, on the strength of a series of independent EPs, a growing reputation as an electrifying live attraction, and some timely exposure on the influential national British station Radio One, Muse signed in America with Maverick and released the above-mentioned Showbiz. The album helped build initial word of mouth, yet budding Muse fans in the U.S. were only able to hear their second offering, 2001’s Origin Of Symmetry, as an import.

By that time the band was already far too busy to let the vagaries of the music business slow them down. “If anything,” asserts Wolstenholme, “it brought us back to the basics. We toured pretty much nonstop, selling our records through a series of small deals, country by country, and really concentrating on our live show. Playing for an audience night after night is what kept us and the music true and honest. It gave us an opportunity to grow naturally.”

It was an opportunity the trio put to good use after taking a yearlong hiatus in 2002 to regroup and recharge. Already a major musical phenomenon in their home country as well as a dozen other Muse hotbeds around the world, the band could afford to take their time. “We were a lot more focused,” Howard explains. “Whereas before we always felt a bit rushed, putting together new songs during sound checks and such, this time we rented a space in London where we lived and worked together for three months. We had time to play out lots of different ideas, do a lot of demos and develop the sound we were after.”

While some things may have changed for the relentlessly innovative threesome, others stayed exactly the same. “The songs are always a reflection of what we’re feeling personally and what’s happening around us,” says Bellamy, chief lyricist for Muse. “We didn’t do a concept album as such, but a theme did develop, built around a sense of things coming to an end. I think because we’re a little older, we’ve had a chance to experience different chapters of our lives closing and others opening up. It’s how you deal with those changes that is at the core of these songs.”

With a range that Bellamy describes as “melancholy to hopeful,” the 14 tracks of Absolution, including the single “Time Is Running Out,” eloquently express life’s inevitable transitions and the elemental emotions that accompany them. But however else the music of Muse may be described, it is quintessentially genuine, the integrated expression of three creatively charged artists whose dynamic interaction makes for some of the most dramatic music on either side of the Atlantic.

Matthew’s childhood

Matthew was born in Cambridge on the 9th June 1978 and moved to Devon with his family at aged 10. Matthew’s dad was in a band called The Tornadoes, who were the first band from the UK to get a US number 1 record. At the age of 14 Matthew’s parents got divorced. "It was ok at home, middle class, we had money,” Matthew says. “Well until the age of 14. I think I almost got everything I wanted until the age of 14, yes. Then, everything changed, parents got divorced, and I went to live with my grand mother, and there wasn't that much money. I have a sister who's older than me, she's actually my stepsister: my dad had her from a previous marriage, and also a younger brother. Until the age of 14 music was part of my life since it was part of the family circle: my dad was a musician, he had a band, etc. But it's only when I moved in with my grandparents that I started playing music myself. It was like a need to me."
Matthew moved in with his grandmother and then found music was a need for him. He started playing piano at 6, but the absence of his parents turned him towards the guitar when he was 14. His parents and older brother also used an Ouija Board to contact the dead, which Matt discovered when he was wandering downstairs late at night. He then became interested in it after the divorce of his parents. “It was exciting to go to school and to tell 10-year-old kids all about it, as they found it all quite scary and I was quite impressed that I was doing something that was scary to other people but that wasn’t to me. I did get quite into that.” His beliefs changed after one correspondence predicted the first Gulf War a year before it started. “My beliefs in the whole thing changed. I now believe that you’re contacting something in your subconscious, which is quite different. Something that you might not have known was already there. That’s probably more realistic than thinking you’re contacting somebody who’s already dead. And I do practice that.
Dominic was born on the 7th December 1977 in Manchester and also moved to Devon when he was 8 years old. He and his family had no interest in music until Dominic went to high school when he then became interested in a jazz band, and started playing the drums. Chris was born on the 2nd December 1978 in Rotherham, Yorkshire but also moved to Devon (at 11). His mum would buy records regularly. He started by learning the guitar, and then the drums to finally play the bass when he met Dom and Matt.

Teignmouth

Teignmouth wasn’t a particularly good town to live in for the band as Matthew explains. "The only time the town came to life was during the summer when it turned into a vacation spot for visiting Londoners. When the summer ended they left and took all the life with them. I felt so trapped there. My friends were either getting into drugs or music, but I gravitated towards the latter and eventually learned how to play. That became my escape. If it weren't for the band, I would probably have turned to drugs myself."
Rocket Baby Dolls
The beginnings of the band came when Matt, Dom and Chris formed Rocket Baby Dolls and entered a “battle of the bands” competition. "I remember the first real concert we've ever made was for a band competition,” says Matt “We were the only real rock band; all the others were pop or funk-pop, kinda Jamiroquai if you want. We knew we had no chance to win - we were not the best musicians - it was a matter of 'fitting'. So we did the best we could, we took advantage of our feeling of being 'different'. We came on stage with make up all over our face, we were very aggressive, we played very violently and then we broke everything on stage. All that to say that the will, the attitude meant a lot to us. So we won. And I think that psychologically it changed many things in our heads. Because we came to lose, we expected to lose. And we were angry somehow. And we had just realized at this time that we could replace lots of things. We realized that emotion, the vibrations that you create are as important as your technical skills. We had just discovered something: music is a matter of emotion." Rocket Baby Dolls was then renamed Muse.

First gigs

As a band, Muse were often asked to play covers. They didn’t like that and were determined to play their own music. The number of gigs started to decline. Then, in October 1995, Dennis Smith discovered them playing in a Cornish village. Dennis Smith: “Matthew has an incredible range of thoughts. He’s got such an imaginative and creative mind, which was obvious in those early days, always challenging and wanting to get into very deep conversations that took 20 years of adult life to come to terms with. An older head on much younger shoulders is how I’ve always seen him.” It wasn’t until 1997 that Dennis offered them free studio time.

First EP, the record deal and Showbiz

In 1998, Taste Media got in touch and a self-titled EP was released on the ‘Dangerous’ label. A few specialist shows were set up in the USA. After strong interest, Madonna’s record label, Maverick, signed them on Christmas Eve 1998. Another EP followed before they released their first single ‘Uno’. It charted just inside the top 75. After the success of the second single ‘Cave’, Muse’s first album (produced by John Leckie who produced Radiohead’s ‘The Bends’) called ‘Showbiz’ was released in October 1999. Early comparisons were being drawn to Radiohead with some critics and music lovers describing them as mere copycats. But it did not stop their success – ‘Muscle Museum’ and ‘Sunburn’ were released as successful singles with ‘Unintended’ being the first Muse single to hit the top 40. The album sold 700,000 copies worldwide and still counting. Muse also released two box sets – The Showbiz box set (released only in France, includes all the copies of their singles) and the Random 1-8 box set (eight b-sides released only in Japan). A successful year for Muse was sealed with a Brit nomination for Best New Act but they didn’t win it.

Origin of Symmetry

John Leckie then returned with Dave Botrill (Muse asked him to produce the album with John) to produce the second album, ‘Origin of Symmetry’. Matthew explains the change in direction. "When we did the first album we'd only done a few gigs in London, no major tours. We've learned so much about how we want to be from touring with other bands because of the way they are on stage. If we recorded them in the way other bands do I'd be worried that it would sound the same as them. We've used wind chimes to set up entire backdrops... bits of bones, Llama claws and bubble wrap. It sounds much more atmospheric." Their first single off the new album, ‘Plug In Baby,’ reached number 11, the highest chart placing yet for any Muse single. Their second single ‘New Born,’ also charted top 20.

The Origin Era

The album was eventually released soon after to a bag of mixed reviews. However, Muse were on a roll and won the Best British Band award at the Kerrang Awards and were nominated for three Q awards (Best Album, Best Live Act and Best Producer) but didn’t win any. ‘Bliss’ and the double A-side ‘Feeling Good/Hyper Music’ were the last singles from the album. What followed in 2002 was a massive world tour promoting the album and a CD and DVD called ‘Hullabaloo’. The DVD featured Muse playing in ‘le Zénith’ in Paris in October 2001. The CD featured a selection of b-sides on one CD and the concert in Paris on the other. Another double A-side called ‘Dead Star/In Your World’ was released. An EP was also released in France called ‘Dead Star/In Your World’ and a second Japanese and French box set were also made. Muse won the ‘Best Live Band’ at the Kerrang Awards for the second year running topping off a successful period for the band, which saw 1.3 million copies sold.

Recording Absolution

Then they took another break to record the third album but this time they dropped John Leckie and worked with Paul Reeve, John Corfield and Rich Costey. Matthew explains "He was the man we originally thought of working with for the rock tracks. He'd previously mixed some great rock records -Audioslave, Rage Against The Machine's ‘Renegades’, The Mars Volta - but in the meantime he'd been sending us discs of other people he'd worked with like Philip Glass and Fiona Apple and was trying to convince us that he should do the whole album. We reworked Apocalypse Please with a more aggressive sound, without too much over-production, and it sounded better. In the end he did do pretty much all the album, and mixed it as well. He understood what we were trying to achieve. The main thing with Rich was that his mixing technique was pretty precise. Every cab would have about 10 microphones on it and they would all be placed with mathematical precision. I remember spending a whole day playing the guitar and seeing Rich outside with a measuring tape and a spirit level! He was making the slightest adjustments, millimetres at a time to get it so there was perfect phase."
The album was going to be uplifting but then the US and the UK went to fight Iraq in the Gulf and everything changed. "We started off with a full orchestra, experimenting, pushing it right over the Queen mark - 98 backing vocals, 32-piece orchestra and all sorts! We did two songs like that and kinda lost our minds,” says Matthew. “We ended deciding to get back to basics. We re-recorded some of the stuff with the orchestra, toned it down a little bit. It sounds a lot harder now than I expected. In terms of general context, the world's changed in the last year, the world events of the last year and a half. It's not that we're a political band but I think it's impossible to avoid those things. I think there's a lot of apocalyptic stuff going on in a lot of the songs. While we were recording all the war (with Iraq) was coming out and we were in the process of recording while watching that. The direction definitely took a pretty harsh change in the middle of it all. In relation to the album it's come across more as a general fear and mistrust of the people in power. It's about moments of extreme fear, and a fair bit of end of the world talk.”
Matt also explains how it is different from ‘Showbiz’ and ‘Origin of Symmetry’. “In the past I was layering guitars quite a lot but this time I wanted to get just one guitar part to stand out and be just perfect. On the last album [‘Origin of Symmetry’] for example, on songs like ‘Citizen Erased’ or ‘Micro Cuts’, I did a lot of multiple guitar parts. But when I went to do it live, I actually found myself simplifying the guitar parts and found that the simple parts were much more effective and much more powerful sounding. So in making this album, instead of recording the songs in layers, I was actually working on the parts a lot more before I recorded them.”
The release of Absolution
‘Stockholm Syndrome’ was released as a download only single to give fans a taste of what was to come on the third album, now called ‘Absolution’. It proved to be not only popular but also one of the most popular download singles ever. Muse then started to play warm-up gigs ahead of the release of the album and a huge European tour. Their next single, ‘Time Is Running Out’, was the only Muse single to feature in the top 10 of the UK chart. Shortly after the European release of ‘Absolution’, Muse won the Q Innovation Award and ‘Absolution’ also topped the album charts in the UK in the process and in December they won the Best British Rock/Indie Band award at the Interactive Music Awards and their third single, ‘Hysteria’, also charted in the top 20 to end a memorable year for Muse.
2004: The Absolution Year
2004 was full of drama for the Muse. They were again nominated for a Brit Award, this time for Best Rock Act but lost to the Darkness. They also went on tour in Australia, France, Japan (in which Chris lost his wedding ring that was eventually returned to him) and the USA. Matthew injured his mouth whilst performing in Atlanta. Matthew explains the pain: "I didn't feel any pain at first. Then I spat out this liquid and there were gushes of red stuff spurting out all over the microphone. I ran backstage and started puking up. At first you could feel the stitches stretching my face as I sang but now the only problem is that they seem to be disappearing into my lip.” Dominic also noticed that Matt was injured. "I knew it was bad as soon as he turned around, there was blood dripping everywhere."
He recovered and Muse continued touring America and Canada whilst ‘Absolution’ got critical acclaim, making them one of the British bands that have the potential to crack America like Coldplay. ‘Absolution’ was also only the second album to be released in America because ‘Origin of Symmetry’ was never released there following a dispute with Maverick. ‘Sing for Absolution’ was then released as a single on the eve of their huge European festival tour, charting in the top 20.
Matt has a very interesting habit whilst touring; poker. "I'm really into the mind games of poker", he explains. "I'm more ruthless than the other two so I've been taking all their money. It can get boring. In Barcelona I had to go to a casino to play with some pros. I still made around 500 euros. You know the Channel 4 poker programme Late Night Poker? My ambition is to appear on that. But the stake is £1500 and I'm not quite good enough yet."
Muse confirmed their status as one of the world’s best rock bands by playing a fantastic set at Glastonbury. But it was marred by tragedy as just hours after coming off, Dom’s father, died of a heart attack after seeing his son play live. "It was the biggest feeling of achievement we've ever had after coming offstage", Bellamy says. "It was almost surreal that an hour later his dad died. It was almost not believable. We spent about a week sort of just with Dom trying to support him. I think he was happy that at least his dad got to see him at probably what was the finest moment so far of the band's life."
More drama would unfold at the Cure Curiosa Tour in America as half-way through the tour, Chris injured his wrist, throwing many festival dates in doubt. However, they managed to recruit a temporary replacement in Morgan Nicholls, bassist for UK hip-hop act The Streets, and, with Chris playing on keys and providing backing vocals, delivered a storming show at the V Festival in August 2004, rounding a mad year since the release of ‘Absolution’.

The Future

Matthew explains how Muse will go about recording their forth album. “We want to have a new approach and a new atmosphere. We will maybe find a house and take our own material to record it. I’d like to spend some time in New-York too! It seems to be a “magical” city to record an album. We really dunno now. I think that we all wanna have a normal life. Chris is gonna spend some time with his children and I’m gonna find a job in a bar! I think the combination of guitar rock and full-on 70’s disco is ready to be exploited properly. Like Night Fever, but heavy. Or Billy Jean. A little bit rock guitar, a little bit disco."
"For me", Matt says, "Muse is about getting the hopes, dreams, desires, frustrations out of your system that you wouldn't normally be able to do. It's about showing people that there are things inside buried that should be exposed, and having no shame about them. We can communicate no matter the environment." Dom also explains what the band has learnt from their time as a band. “I think we've just grown up over the years and learnt loads about who are as people and how we played our instruments and it's definitely kind of a growing up process, but it's all about commitment. You know, believing in something you do a lot and kind of fulfilling that and fulfilling the things you really want